Ukraine Negotiators Call For Truce From September 1

The warring sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine have agreed to strive for an end to all truce violations from September 1 -- the day the new school year is to begin.

The OSCE special representative in Ukraine, Martin Sajdik, said on August 26 that the sides "agreed to jointly verify the fulfillment of this initiative."

He was speaking after representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and separatists met under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

"Today there is a hope that from September 1 we will succeed fully in ending the firing," rebel representative Vladislav Deinego said. "At the moment all sides have expressed the intention of abiding by this idea."

Fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has killed at least 6,400 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.

A cease-fire agreement reached in Minsk in February has been regularly violated.